


Light as the Breeze

by Lexigent



Category: SHAKESPEARE William - Works, The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-20
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-05 07:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4170417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexigent/pseuds/Lexigent





	Light as the Breeze

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aestivali](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aestivali/gifts).



Ariel watched the humans board their ship and leave the island, unsure how to feel about it.

An hour earlier, Prospero had broken his staff and released Ariel. Ariel had felt that - an almost physical tug at the core of Ariel's being, the removal of a force that had lain on it for so long that Ariel had forgotten about it.

He'd looked at Prospero then and felt a different kind of pain. Ariel's master - no, no longer master - was smiling at Ariel with affection, his face creased and framed by white hair.

"My dearest," he said and closed his eyes. Ariel stood transfixed in the doorway, not knowing which way to turn. The staff was broken, but the force that bound Ariel to Prospero still was different. Ariel stepped inside and walked towards Prospero. 

"Farewell." Ariel shyly laid a hand on Prospero's cheek. Prospero turned and opened his eyes, but didn't take the hand away.

"Farewell, my delicate Ariel. I have kept you longer than I should have." He turned his head, but not quickly enough to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes. Ariel reached out, ready to comfort him, but Prospero put up his arm to block him.

Ariel stepped back, confused but obedient, and repeated, "Farewell." Prospero did not reply. Ariel transformed into a gust of air and moved across Prospero's face before disappearing underneath the door.

And so Ariel came to sit on the rocky outcrop above the sea and watch the humans leave the island one by one. Miranda was looking at Ferdinand, light reflecting in her eyes, and he kissed her with affection. Watching them pained Ariel in the same unnameable way as leaving Prospero. Ariel watched them until the boat had crossed the horizon and after that, Ariel watched the sun slowly sink into the sea and disappear.

Ariel was air; passed through space and time, and could not fathom why this was different; why, somehow, the island was changed and Ariel was changed isntead of going back to how they had been seven years ago. Perhaps the long magic captivity of Sycorax had done some lasting damage to them both.

What Ariel felt was - absence. The absence of Prospero's magic, of bounds and commandments, and that absence should have made Ariel happy, or relieved, and free. Yet, Ariel sat on the outcrop, in the physical shape that was so familiar; human-like; unmoving.

In the end, for lack of a better course of action, Ariel transformed into air and roamed the island without clear aim or purpose for hours, finally halting and feeling none the wiser, but marginally better for it.

The last rays of sun spilled across the sea in a cacophony of red and orange light. Ariel looked at the colours and, for the first time in long ages, noticed the evening birds singing. And something inside Ariel started responding to their song, like a string on a lute hums in sympathy when another instrument is played nearby. A sense Ariel had forgotten about: a magic that did not come from Prospero, or from any other external force, buyt from within.

Ariel could stretch out and become the movement of air across the waves; become the song of the birds as they called to one another. Could simply _be_ , without aim or purpose, because no one else, nothing else, had a consciousness that could experience what Ariel could experience.

Ariel relaxed and stretched out into the colours, into the song of the birds, into the crash of the waves against the shore. It felt alien after so many years, and it didn't fill the _absence_ which was still unmistakably present - but it soothed over it. Ariel relaxed further, connected with the island, with the wind that rustled the leaves of the trees, with the grains of sand on the beach as they were tossed about by the breeze.

Ariel _belonged_ here, in ways that human language would never be able to express. The absence, the pain, would fade with time, and Ariel had the rest of eternity.


End file.
